Stupid is as Stupid Does

Foreigners are not particularly impressed with most Americans' mental abilities and with good reason in some cases. For instance, nearly 25% of the American people believe President Bush knew about the 9/11 attacks in advance, but even worse 30% of Americans did not know when 9/11 happened! What? Additionally, 50% of Americans remain convinced that Saddam Hussein had WMDs, even though inspectors have not found any in the years since the terrorist attack.

If you happen to be a Christian fundamentalist or devoted religionists, the amount of stupidity, especially among them is ludicrous. Almost 50% of Americans did not know that Judaism is older than both Christianity and Islam. Unbelievably, a third of Americans have no idea of what The Holocaust was or when it happened. In what has to be one of the greatest tributes to ignorance among religionists, 55% of Americans believe that Christianity was written into the Constitution and that the founding fathers wanted One Nation Under Jesus! The amount of grey cells that died coming up coming up with that Bizzaro thinking is not even quantifiable.

Sadly, Americans do not even rank among the top ten nations when it comes to science among teens. Why? It might be that 61% of American's do not believe in evolution, while in other industrialized nations, the number drops as low as 15%. Worse, 51% of Americans believe in Creationism, an idea no reputable scientific organization in the world accepts. It seems that making up facts appeals to many Americans, especially regionally. The South leads the country in aberrant behavior. For instance, in Texas, 33% of its residents believe that dinosaurs and humans roamed the earth at the same time, a belief that is such ridiculosity the even the terminally stupid cannot believe it.

Science remains an obstacle for most Americans, and yet, that has not stopped the staggering displays of moronic and imbecilic behavior that just will not do us a favor and stay in the closet. A quarter of Americans believe the sun revolves around the earth. Say what? That's right, 25% of Americans believe in a theory that was disproven, not last year, but several centuries ago. However, most Americans, excuse me, some Americans are familiar with Gemini and Aries constellations, so knowledge of the stars is a possibility. Unfortunately, the only knowledge 25% of Americans have is a belief in astrology.

Nearly a fifth of Americans, believe that UFOs have abducted someone they know. The same people probably think Yoda lives in Beverly Hills. Since this subject crosses into interstellar space, it should be noted that almost 60% of Americans believe that the moon landing was staged! That's right! More than half! The scenery of this death spiral into total synapse failure must be beautiful because 80% of Americans believe the country is keeping something concealed in Roswell--aliens!

For many Americans, their ignorance is only exceeded by their arrogance in displaying it as knowledge. Maybe, foreigners get tired of these nitwits not even having the capability of finding their country on a map. Almost 65% of young Americans can't find Iraq on a map where US soldiers fought and died. Even more embarrassing, 90% can't find Afghanistan—even if you give them the advantage of a map limited to Asia. And, the list goes on, as 33% of Americans of any age cannot identify the continent that's home to the Amazon River!

Almost any area that sounds questionable, silly or even ridiculous, there is sizable group of Americans willingly to make asses of themselves by admitting they believe in the preposterous. Nearly, 25% of Americans believe they've been in the presence of a ghost while same number believes there are real sorcerers, conjurers, and warlocks, while another 40% believe ESP is real!

Of course, no list of inanities would be complete without the inclusion of political idiocy. Twenty percent of Americans believe that President Barack Obama is a Muslim. He's not, but there is no law against Muslims holding office. The lunacy doesn't stop there, as 40% believe in the "death squads" silliness about the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. The political acuity of a portion of the American electorate is stunningly lacking. Nearly 50% of Americans cannot identify what the initials GOP stand for. Wow! Imbeciles

Americans lack of political sophistication combined with their general absence of governmental knowledge is mind numbing as benzocaine. Are you ready? Here goes. A quarter of Americans believe the US won its independence from a country other than Great Britain! Fance and China were the other countries most mentioned. The coup de gras for any remaining intelligence goes out window when considering that only 1 out of 1,000 Americans could name five freedoms guaranteed in the First Amendment. You know freedom of the press, freedom of religion, etc. However, there is hope as almost a fourth of Americans can name every member of the Simpson family.

Probably the greatest indicator of American idiocy is shown by the 52% of Americans who believe Fox News is the most trusted station in the news.

At this point, insanity begins into creep into the soft heads of America’s thoughtless.

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JL--THat's one of the startlers. If you went to school just up to the sixth grade, you should know that. Someone mentioned that other countries have just as many idiots as ours and even more, but as I pointed out--I'm not concerned about their idiots, I'm concerned about ours. If we are a Class-A country, we should at least be literate.

That is so neat! We need to make education cool and something people enjoy.

Charles Dickens in the 1800's was able to affect people's attitudes with his hugely entertaining novels. They were published in installments, and people would eagerly await the next episode. But at the same time, he was communicating social messages, a sympathy for the oppressed, and likely his novels helped bring about reforms.

Dateline has something of the same effect with their very entertaining TV shows about wrongful convictions. They publicize that it's quite possible to be wrongly convicted, that jury verdicts are quite arbitrary and sometimes nonsensical. There seem to be more innocent people in prison than people realize, and it's a good thing to make this known.

If knowledge about the world could be packaged into something enjoyable, that would help. After all religion sells itself with good feelings and a sense of community.

Unfortunately TV news has the attention span of a fruit fly. It sells itself by alarming people, because they've found that works. Even the weather news tries to sell itself by fear, by overdramatizing routine winter storms etc.

Luara--I agree with everything you said. If we all did a small small according to our talents, we could help end the problem. For instance, on the weekends I teach at the Street University, which nothing more than a building with people like myself from all types of services, businesses, educational backgrounds teaching people who can't afford a formal education, but desire to be educated. My personals are writing, English, sales, management and linguistics. We have everything from mechanics to air plane operation there. Most of mine is writing and English, but the students are willing and focused. Quite satisfying. I am bothered that many of US citizens get their information from political sound bites, partisan politics, religion, the military industrial complex and commercial marketing and advertising.

ps People feel personally powerless to change things, that's part of it.

When I got rid of my car and started riding a bicycle around, I thought of it as a way of living that helps contribute to peace, because our demand for energy drives wars. And peaceful for me personally, because cars are so dangerous. I thought, the smile on my face when I'm riding my bike around, tells people good things about bike riding.

It also amuses me when I carry large objects on my bicycle. Like a berry bush :)

But those people are also exposed to ads for cars and trucks every day on TV. A car is an axiomatic part of their lives. So my pro-bike emanations likely disappear in a flood of pro-car jingles and glamor.

It actually worries me that so many people are ignorant and don't care

It worries me too. It's not so much ignorance about science that is a problem - if someone wants to think the sun circles the earth in an invisible chariot, that's OK with me. But ignorance that relates to how our country operates, bothers me a lot.

I ask myself, when a sizable percentage of people think 9/11 was done by the US government, how are we as a country to deal with the real questions it brought up? We haven't, actually - we've just acted in a short-range way, with increased security in the airports, trying to hunt down terrorists, etc.. How about long-range thinking about the source of the problem and what we can do about it?

I'm surprised with the massive irrationality that our government is as sane as it is. But different kinds of illusions tend to sweep each other under the rug. Since politicians try to satisfy all sorts of different groups, they tend to not have those illusions so much.

It's when almost everyone has the same illusion, that it gets really dangerous. Like almost everyone getting programmed by TV.

It actually worries me that so many people are ignorant and don't care. Ignorance does not mean stupid as we know, it just means being unaware or unexposed to some things that are considered important. I've had friends brag to me that they hadn't read a book since high school or college. That is sad. They get all their news from the tube. They don't read newspapers, except USA Today. Not even the hometown rags. No Time, US News--Nothing! And, they are happy, but surprised when something happens they should be aware of. Sad.

I love polls but often loathe the results. From an educators point of view, I use to teach middle school (Jr. high) geography (back when it used to be offered). Kids made maps, studied, drilled, and so forth on all things geographical. Come test time and BOMB CITY! To this day, I never understood why. I agree with you--Americans are just plain stupid.